Wilting Flowers
by eleni459
Summary: Anemone reflects on her first meeting with Dewey and comes to a powerful conclusion. Spoilers for episode 44 to the end.


_Disclaimer: The original concept for Eureka seveN was created by Studio BONES. I receive no monetary benefit from this work._

_This was written for the LiveJournal community 31 days. The prompt for this day was "father figure."_

* * *

Theoretically, everyone had a father. Anemone occasionally heard the various doctors and attendants discuss their fathers in detail. They ranged from kind and friendly to surly and cruel. Some kept in touch with their fathers while others had not seen theirs in multiple years. Dead or alive, their memories of these men were vibrant and vivid. 

Had Anemone ever had a father? She couldn't remember. She sometimes had memories of a man flash into view at awkward moments. Was he her father? She felt nothing for him. Surely, if he were her father, she would feel a sudden twinge of emotion at the passing notion of his face. Instead, all she felt was confusion.

* * *

Even if she had had a father, wouldn't he have saved her before she was taken away to the place that would mold her into adulthood? Cold, bruised, and confused, they had taken her away from the burned out city to begin their experiments. She and countless other girls, who Anemone assumed were just as fatherless as herself, were snatched away from whatever semblance of life they had to begin at anew as someone's guinea pig. Though she trembled at the thought of those experiments, she could barely remember their details. Tingles here, flaming sensations there, memories of her early months at the Novak Foundation were more like sensory hallucinations than actual complete thoughts. Her life during that time was a lonely haze. 

Her first true memories came through with the arrival of Dewey Novak. One of the attendants had explained to her that he was the foundation's patron and that he had come to inspect the girls and to see how well the foundation's project was progressing. She felt elated by this knowledge and wore her confidence on her sleeve when he came to check on them. She knew about the general weakness of the other girls. All she had to do was pretend to calm and happy so that she would stand out. And just as she had expected, she caught the man smile as he inspected her. She watched him whisper something to a young male aide to his right and move on. An hour after the assessment, an attendant came in to gather her. "Colonel Novak wants to talk to you," he said, his tone vague and weak.

She tried not bound into the room but in hindsight she probably appeared to hopping as she entered into the office. The attendant offered a chair close to the desk and told her to wait as Colonel Novak had been delayed by one of the doctors. She did so gladly, eager to assess the office of her would-be savior. The room was mostly barren except for the few weather-beaten chairs and the well-worn desk. On closer inspection, she could see where someone had carved a word into the faint gray wood. But the alphabet was unfamiliar to her so couldn't decipher it.

"I hope I did not keep you waiting long, Anemone."

She started at the sound of her name. She turned to its source and froze. Dewey appeared more vibrant outside of the over-lit examination room. Everything about him to Anemone seemed to sparkle. It was as if he had been recently polished. "I…I'm fine Colonel," she said softly.

"Good." Instead of taking the seat behind the desk, he pulled up a chair from the corner and placed in front of Anemone. She noticed that when he sat down he leaned forward just a bit, letting his hands hang gracefully across his legs. "I must tell you that you are an exceptional girl, Anemone."

"Thank you, sir." She could feel her cheeks begin to burn.

"I've looked at your tests and, honestly, you are the most extraordinary of all our girls. You will be capable of marvelous things once this is all over."

"When will it end?"

"Soon, soon. But for now, you must stick it out as best you can. You see, if you do well, I have a job for you that I know you'll be able to handle."

"Really?"

"Yes." He leaned so close that noses almost touched. "Will you do well for me?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good." He pulled back sharply and rose from his seat. He casually walked toward the door but before he left, he turned to her and said, "I'm counting on you, Anemone. Don't let me down."

This moment stuck with her through the next months of excruciating experiments. Unlike the first set, these moments of terror were always sitting at the outskirts of her mind, waiting to fall back into consciousness the moment she began to falter. Though these tests were brutal, Anemone dealt with them the best she could. The other girls whimpered and screamed throughout the process, working themselves up into such frenzies that they would pass out or lapse into sleep at a moment's notice. When it was all done, she was the only girl left. She had once asked Dewey if that was a disappointment to him. Was chosen because she the best girl or because she was the sole choice? "It doesn't matter," he had responded jovially. "You were best because you were last."

* * *

It was all a kind of cold comfort in the waning days of the operation. Now, she had begun to falter at the hands of typeZero and within the recesses of her own mind. He had told her so and she was ashamed. Now, there were new girls to take her place. They were younger and bolder but they were just as fatherless as she was when he chose her. She watched some days as he lavished his attention on these girls and watched as their cheeks burned in the same way that hers had on the day so many years ago. "Maybe," she said to herself one day, "that is why he chooses us. We have no other man to compare him to. We think his terrors kindness just because it's the best thing we've ever known." 

Though she knew his methods, she couldn't turn away from him when he sent her into the Scab Coral to tag the Command Cluster. He was still her father. She still lived to make him proud.


End file.
